Does adding the cold air intakes like most of us have done void the warranty on the car? I heard exhaust mods don't but intakes do?

Cuz my BAS/ESP light came on today and before I bring it in, I need to know if I should put the old intakes back on for the service.

 

Pretty much unless a dealer can prove that your modification caused the error you are good to go. In your case I would say you are fine. An extreme case would be if you installed a supercharger and all of a sudden your radio stopped working - they would not be able to void your warranty.

 

I have had my car in for service a few times and will be taking it in tomorrow. Tech or Service Writer has never said anything about my intake.

 

First off how can you add a cold air intake if the car already comes with one? If you are talking about something like a ram air intake or some modifications done to the stock intake system... I do not see how it can possibly void the warranty as this product only in the most extreme cases can do any damage to other components... maybe if you close of an intake and disable the car from breathing in any air... through them... is the only way I can see it doing damage to the engine...

Unless the dealer is able to prove that a modification is the cause of the error your warranty will not be voided... warranties do not get voided too often and are not voided that easily... unless you add a high boost supercharger and not balance the engine towards it's expectations it is not a really easy task to void the warranty... especially with the current aftermarket parts available for our cars... and the limited experience our chrysler mechanics have on our cars...

 

Ok thanks guys.

The light went off, so if it comes back on I'll take it in. Hopefully there's no charge for them to even look at it, since i have the extended warranty.

 

The BAS/ESP light will go on if there's a loss of power. I don't know of circumstances where it just comes on it's own.

 

Hmm, maybe a low battery? its only got 16k miles on the car so far.

 

old battery can be regardless of the mileage it has actually supported... if the car is 3 years old and has only driven 16k in a matter of a year and spent the two years being driven only once every few months it could very well be that the battery is dying... but all in all changing the battery on an average of once every 3 years is a good idea...

 

Coming from the car that i came from recently, i know all about the world of getting your car warranted and not getting it flagged for modifications...

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
http://www.dynosources.com/dept.asp?d_id=203&l1=203

It basically says that a dealership can not refuse warrenty work on a car solely based on the fact that a car has aftermarket parts on it. The dealership has to prove that the modification added to the car was the direct cause of the failure to a stock part for them to void your warrenty.

Of course, if the world worked the way it should, that would be the end of it. In the real world, lets say that you blow your tranny some how, most dealership will refuse the warrenty work and void the warrenty for something like a throttle body, or even a Intake. I have a friend right now that has a SRT-4 that had his voided because he had a intake while he was in for a tranny that wouldn't shift into 3rd gear.

The real world stance of the dealership is that you have to prove to them that your aftermarket part, regardless of what it is was NOT the cause of the failure. Most people play the game of returning the car back to stock when they have to bring it in for work at dealerships.

Now, dealerships have seen it all... so they tend to be skeptical... too many people try every which way, and they mess up something on their car after they did something.

Last thing you can do is be honest with the dealership. I had in the past, while i had a srt-4 with coilovers, sways, intake, stage 1 pcm and a couple of other bolt-on parts, the cam seals blew, i went into the dealership and told them what i had done with the car, and the problem. If they could look at it and fix it, if there was a problem, let me know before they do anything.

So, basically if you want to play the modding game, be ready to have to pony up the money when something goes wrong. It isn't always fair, but it is just the way things actually are.

 

Another thing is chipping or modifying the computer system on your car WILL VOID your warranty. Granted the dealership has to figure out that you did this, but if they do it's your loss. There has been many times when a truck has came into my dads work with the superchip modification and they told them that they needed to put it back to stock, before they looked at it. They only give one warning.

 

I have a friend that is a salesman at a Chrysler dealership and I've told him about installing the Renntech kit in my SRT6. I asked him how that would effect the warranty, I had told him that Renntech had told me that Chrysler has to prove the MOD. is what caused the problem. He agreed, and said that Chrysler would not fight me on warranty work because of the Renntech kit. On another note, if you look into Renntech stores, there are 2 or 3 Renntech stores at AMG dealerships.

 

I have worked at dealerships for over 30 years and here is how something like this is looked at. If you modify the air intake system the only way they care is if you come in with a problem involving the intake such as dirt ingestion or restriction of air flow, keep in mind any sensor having to do with that is included. This involves only that repair on that day and if you returned the car to its original condition and returned they would then repair it. I know of nothing other than a car that has been submerged in water that can totally void a warranty. If you have a dealer tell you your warranty is voided ask for that in writing so you can have their you know what. Warranty will pay to repair the vehicle in its original state and anything you change is warranted by the installer (or yourself) including progressive damage. The enforcement of this is up to the dealership, some will not care and some will be hard nosed about it.